By Sara StrongThe Luverne City Council received a recommendation on its search for a new city attorney.City Administrator Greg LaFond said he thought the current attorney’s office, Skewes, Klosterbuer and Vajgrt, Luverne, did a good job with the prosecutions and should remain with the city in that capacity, at a cost of $105 per hour.To keep most of the legal work local, general counsel work would be done by Vander Kooi Law Offices, Luverne, at the cost of $120 per hour.Also a part of staff’s recommendation to the City Council Tuesday was to appoint a special counsel to assist the city attorney in special cases or take over in the case of a conflict of interest.LaFond said appointing a special counsel isn’t necessary, but might keep a relationship with a particular firm open. Flaherty and Hood, St. Paul, was the recommendation at $100 to $110 per hour for attorneys there.Flaherty and Hood represents the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, and has worked with the city of Luverne before in lobbying efforts.The city will likely act on the attorney proposals at its next meeting, Dec. 23. Up until now, Skewes, Klosterbuer and Vajgrt handled all legal matters for the city at an hourly rate of $95. Don Klosterbuer said that when the city and county were both represented by him as city and county attorney, the city was charged half.City water ratesAfter four years of no rate increases, the city of Luverne is considering raising water rates 9.1 percent in 2004. The base fee for most customers will be $10, and $2.16 for water usage up to 20 units.The council will take a final vote on that at its next meeting, after some discussion Tuesday.The next few years have scheduled increases too. 2005 will be 5.1 percent increase; 2006 will be 5 percent; and 2007 will be 4.6 percent.Mayor Glen Gust said he hoped by then, that the city could level off the increases, considering the next few years will bring 23.8 percent more water costs to customers.Finance Officer Barb Berghorst said it’s important to note that the increases are funding depreciation on the costly city water equipment. With this kind of financial planning, customers won’t have big increases after the first few years, and the city can afford upkeep and replacements. A new water tower costs about $1 million, for example, and Luverne’s current water tower was built in the 1940s and is near the end of its usefulness.
